Cycle superhighways – have you tried them?

Once again continuing London Cyclists “comment Friday” tradition (better names on a post-card please!) I want to hear some thoughts on the cycle superhighways.

Vincent was kind enough to send me some pictures of the Cycle Superhighways along Narrow Street leading to Canary Wharf. This route has long been one I believe TfL need to really focus on. This is due to the lack of good cycling routes leading to Canary Wharf where so many people work.

The first two routes were due for completion in May 2010. We are now in June and 31 days from now, on the 19th of July, the two superhighways will officially be open.

Of course the criticism has been pouring in with plenty of videos appearing on YouTube such as this one:

My main concern with the superhighways is how much they will actually improve safety and provide a more enjoyable ride. If London cyclists are still having to go around drivers in the cycle lane then not a lot has changed.

I’m also concerned that the superhighways will signal to people that cyclists require a special lane in order to be safe. I strongly believe this is not the case. If you take cycle training then you learn that using a narrow cycle lane is more dangerous than staying in the middle of the road. Research into cycle lanes suggests that only very wide cycle lanes provide extra safety for the rider.

I’m due to ride one of the superhighways with TfL on July 1st. I definitely want to forward any of your concerns to them so please do let me know your thoughts.

Have you tried one of the cycle superhighways? If so, what did you think?

55 Responses to Cycle superhighways – have you tried them?

Andreas, I completely agree with you. Thin cycle lanes are only useful when they have painted chevron buffers or physical barriers between the cyclist and the rest of the road. Baylis Road – which runs between the Old Vic and Lambeth North – is the only road in London where the cycle lane is actually helpful, and that’s because it has buffers.

Where I live, the blue paint from the new cycle superhighway has drifted everywhere in little balls. It looks a mess.

I’ve coincidentally used both CS7 and CS3 as both are on my normal commute.

As an exercise in raising awareness, they might work, but they don’t route around junctions and signals, so traffic lights in particular will still be a source of contention; a bit of blue paint isn’t going to make the fairweathered amongst us stop at a red light.

Thus far, drivers are happy to drive on the blue part of the road, so they aren’t even doing anything positive for separation (but I’m also all for sharing the roadspace).

The most positive benefit is that they’ve relaid quite a lot of what had previously been a quite pot-holed road surface in order to paint the roads, so that’s a definite plus.

The Narrow Street route is more interesting – but there still isn’t a decent route into Canary Wharf – witness the number of people carrying bikes up the steps at Westferry circle rather than rejoining the traffic on Westferry Road.

Ask TfL what they are going to do about companies that continually park in cycle lanes even after tickets from traffic wardens and visits from the police. There is no point having a bit of blue tarmac if you can’t see or ride on it for cars. An example is CS7 on Southwark Bridge Road outside Long Lane Cab Centre, always full of cabs.

I work in Canary Wharf, so I am very familiar with the large blue squares in Narrow St – about every 20-30m. I am not sure WHAT they are for ? they don’t define a lane (and Narrow St has very few cars) and they seem completely OTT as direction markers, when other cycle routes are adequately signed with small blue signs on lampposts. Very odd.

I also cyle along some stretches of blue cycle lane on my way home – I can’t quite remember where, I need to pay more attention. What worries me is ROAD SURFACE the thick blue paint is very shiny and when it’s wet I am very suspicous that it is slippery. Moutnatin bikes are probably OK, buy I and many other cyclists on skinny road tyres take care to avoid the blue surface in the rain. So again its pointless.

Road Surface is something often neglected by cycle lane constructors. Take Cable Street which is the main cycling route from Tower Bridge to Canary Wharf
– car surface: excellent really smooth new tarmac. lovely to cycle on
– pavements: excellent pale coloured new slabs, well laid to provide smooth surface
– cycle lane – that porridgy green stuff, laid on top of a ripply effect sub-layer, the green stuff all loose and flaking off. Plenty of scars from old trenches etc.
Again – cyclists of road bikes use the street (even, sometime when it’s one way against you)

regarding this, I am on a road bike and went over cycling in the rain last night on the blue paint where you travel around the corner to turn off Narrow Street – I knew it would be trecharous as well so was going round slowly but it was still slippy. The whole route of blue paint is a nightmare in the rain on a road bike, so I will just go down the main road to get to Tower Bridge now in the rain.

That small steep hill section just after the bridge is terrible now as well in the rain.

+1
The slippery blue paint super slippery!
I always stick to the main roads anyway, much faster with more grip. There’s no way I can get up to speed on this stupid cycle paths – they’re so bumpy and un-even with obstacles every few yards.
On the main road my GPS phone records 25 to 28mph on the way to work every day down Commercial Road.
The super-slow highways are super-slow, and super slippery.

Sorry Harry, but 25 to 28mph on a bicycle is a bit knobby really. We can’t stop as well as cars, people don’t expect bikes to be going that fast. In my opinion that kind of speed reveals the kind of mentality you have – and it ain’t a community-spirited one but a territorial one.

Overall I think the whole thing is a waste of time. TFL would be better off encouraging new cyclists onto quieter back roads, which while slower are also much more pleasant places to be for the novice. I figured out a route from Streatham to Waterloo that completely avoided the A24 with its fumes and crowd of buses, cars, mopeds and cyclists all jockeying for position on the road, and it only took me 5-10 minutes longer to arrive than the direct route.

On the lanes themselves – I’ve been trying to work out what the continuous cycle lane on the A24 junction at Tooting Bec is actually for. I don’t think it means I can jump the red light, as that will invariably mean I run into traffic from the crossraods. If it’s supposed to make drivers aware that there are cyclists around then it seems a little pointless as one of the main goals of London drivers is to completely ignore other road users whenever possible.

I was on the forthcoming Merton to Bank superhighway three weeks ago when a car driver (who then sped off without stopping) turned right across my path without any warning. An evening in A & E followed by an operation on my shoulder means that i will not be cycling again until September. When I am back the saddle, I will return to my back roads route for my 16 mile journey to work, which may take 5 minutes longer but is considerably safer.

It sounds like a wonderful positive contribution to improving the lot of cyclist (who are all too often treated like second class road users) and encouraging people to switch to using bikes.

This makes the anger and frustration even more acute when you realise what a superficial, glib and pointless waste of money the whole project is. It is an utter waste and merely a vanity project dreamt up by idiots who have no idea about cycling in cities.

Personally I think CS3 is far from a “Superhighway” – if I’m coming along the A13 towards town then I’m not about to wander off down Narrow Street and Cable Street.

I occasionally ride in from Beckton and the section of cycle lane next to the A13 is generally good (a few dodgy junction designs) and if they’d continued that all the way to Aldgate it would make sense – the A13 is generally a good road for cycling on (decent bus lanes) with the tunnel junctions (Blackwall and Rotherhithe) being the nasty areas.

Re. Canary Wharf – I think they clearly should sort out a route from the river to the campus (you used to be able to go along past West Ferry and then in the Southern entrance but thay was blocked years ago for construction. I quite like the ramp up to West Ferry Circus – it’s the closest I come to ever riding up a hill

I am going to try and bring some positive comments for a change. Hopefully I won’t be proven wrong in practice…

We must also encourage integration: not by creating cycle paths, but by reminding other vehicles of the presence of bicycles on their route.

This is where I want to make a slightly positive comment about these blue painted lanes.
I don’t view them as lanes at all: I just view them as a visible reminder to *all* road users that a portion of the road will most likely be populated by cyclists, and that is IMHO a very positive message because it encourages integration.

To work even better, the blue paint should not be painted starting from the gutter, as it is now, but should be painted 0.5 m from it, and span into the primary position, on *all* routes where cyclists are most likely to be found, especially in congested areas.

Why is this reminder necessary? Because until the last 24 months or so, noone really recognised that cycling was making a huge come back.
Now more than ever, cycling is really taking off as an alternative to all other methods of transport, and we *must* advertise this fact.

On top of that, cyclists, just like pedestrians, do need separate facilities when the nature of the area or the traffic does not allow easy integration.

It does not mean that cyclists must use the separate facilities. But that a separate facility should be put in place when possible to ensure cycling is safe and enjoyable for *all* users.

Some (most) of the cyclists who participate in forums or who share their opinions online are, like myself, very experienced cyclists who have no problem integrating with traffic.

Indeed, I would argue that *any* cyclists ought to have the right to integrate with traffic *everywhere*.

Unfortunately, the road layout and traffic regulations have been modeled after the use of motor vehicles.

As cycling is becoming more popular, the deficiencies of the current public road system are becoming more and more obvious, to all drivers, whether they drive a motor vehicle or a push bike.

To mitigate this fact there are several options. One is to enable cyclists not to mix with other form of traffic, especially cars.
Unless we all agree that pavements are perfectly safe for cyclists to use, then we need to improve those facilities. The less experienced cyclists, or occasional ones, will benefit from it. Cycling with children will become a real alternative, which currently it is not.
You might blame perception of danger, rather than real danger, but the fact is that any parent with more than one child will be extremely reluctant to face the morning rush hour traffic to take their children to school.
I do take my son to school and intend for him to become confident in traffic, but I also cycle a few thousand miles a year, compared to my neighbors who only cycle a few miles a lifetime.

I agree with your point about cyclists sharing the road but that makes the blue paint even more pointless unless it is going to be applied to every road. Even if all the Cycling Superhighways are built and I go out of my way to use them I’ll still have 50% of my journey on regular roads.

I agree with you David: they shouldn’t advertise them as cycle super highways, that is quite deceiving. I am hopeful though that as cycling is recognised as here to stay, it will prompt the construction of the proper infrastructures.
I am really hopeful because I am so pro-cycling that I am now finding it really difficult to imagine how this phenomenon is not going to expand even further.
I recently went for a visit to Oxford, on foot, where I met loads of cyclists of all kinds, wearing normal day-to-day clothes, no helmets, and simply enjoying the obvious advantage of being on two wheels. At any junction where pedestrians and cyclists had to somehow ‘converge’, it was safe, and easy, to understand each other, and no one ever felt in danger. It is that kind of integration that motor vehicles never have and never will bring to our towns!

A touch of blue paint does not make a superhighway, like Simon I come in from Dagenham along the A13 and the cycle lane was already there alongside pedestrians & separete from the road & all that’s been done so far is to paint it blue,(not finished yet, and as was stated earlier is a bit slippery when wet) level a few dips, put up a few barriers in places to seperate it from traffic. And I also cant see the point in turning down towards Narrow st at canning when the direct route to Aldgate is straight on into the bus lane past the tunnels and on up the Commercial road, which they did start to relay the rough bits with a new surface but seem to have stopped without completing it. Shame

A cycling super highway will only be advantageous to the cyclist, increasing their travel time and more importantly their safety – only if the lane is segregated from other traffic COMPLETELY. It’s buses that cause me the biggest problem, I don’t like to creep up the nearside in case I get squashed, and trying to pass them on the offside is taking your life in your hands in some places!

I know buses play a huge part in London’s travel network… but I still hate them.

I think I’ll stick to the non-bus back streets rather than utilise the ‘super highways’

a lot of cyclists are negative about buses, but my experience of buses while commuting (from Canary Wharf to Twickenham) is generally very positive.

I thnik that that bus drivers are much more aware of cyclists, than the average motorist, and much more patient as well. For instance

– bus drivers do seem to look out for those suicidal cyclists who sneak up the left hand side of large vehicles who are turning left. On more than one occasion I have seen bus drivers spot them, when lorry drivers often don’t.

– stationary buses that ready to pull out just as you decide to overtake them – again drivers seem to be aware, and wait for you to complete the overtake before moving.

Yeah, I cycle on a lot of cycle lanes in South Loondon, and I have no problrms with buses.

It’s the motorcyclists in the bus lanes that frighten me – going too fast, and too close to me, undertaking as well as overtaking…. they shouldn’t be allowed in bus lanes IMO.

I am a pedestrian who has the unfortunate route to work which includes walking over the metal bridge off narrow street, past the barrier. Why cyclist can not go around the corner on the cycle lane I do not know. It is very damgeous going over the bridge with cyclist ringing their bell and expecting me to jump out of their way. I think most don’t realise they could easily pop around the corner on the cucle lane but the cycle network signs signify this is the say they shd go. It is exremely dangerous and as there us an alternative route I think that should be encouraged.

It’s true the route over the bridge is very thin and dangerous for both pedestrians and cyclists to be using. Provision should be made for the both (without sending people the long way round). I’ve always been courteous in this situation and not ring any bell just wait. (Perhaps this is been too courteous – not sure?)

I agree with you Maz – that bridge – indeed that whole riverside stretch – is not suitable for sharing between pedestrians and cyclists at busy times. Indeed it’s not really suitable for sharing at any time.

It’s a problem at CW – there are large numbers of cyclists (cycling seems to get more popular every year) but no decent approach from the west. The riverside is built for pedestrians and the ramp up to WF Circus is built for motorists – too narrow and (it seems, for many) too steep for cyclists.

I ride over the blue blocks to and from CW every day – they seem to have no purpose and I barely see them.

What does need to be looked at is Hyde Park Corner – 50-60 cyclists a time run the gauntlet to get in and out of the Park – why couldn’t we have a dedicated cycle crossing? Currently the options are vying with pedestrians into a narrow lane or dicing with death as the traffic roars off.

It’s not a problem as you come up from Buckingham Palace, we haev a crossing there, btu at the moment we are stranded on the north-west side!

I use Continental Gatorskins 25s & they’re usually pretty good at gripping most surfaces except for those bloody knobbly beige paving stones at traffic light junctions, and general side road crossings, slippery gits they are in the rain, nearly come a cropper a few times, it will happen at some point i’m sure.

Coulpe of guys I chat to on the way confirm this, and one is still nursing the battle scars from the last mishap he had, although he did say he was trying to avoid a rat at the time.

I cycled on the CS7 for the first time this weekend on my way to Clapham for the start of the London to Brighton and after hearing so much about them it was quite a moment to actually get out on it! After a short while though, it was difficult to see what makes them so special. Drivers did seem to be avoiding the lane, but I do tend to find the bus lanes on my daily commute to Hammersmith a better riding experience. On the surface, i found that it varied in texture in different parts, some of it seemed a little like the concrete tennis court surface which seemed like it would fair better in the rain and some were as others had described quite smooth and probably a nightmare in the rain! The inconsistency of the surface, rough, smooth, rough also seemed a little worrying.

I cycled from Tooley Street up along Southwark St the other day and somewhere along there I found a blue lane – it’s a completely different surface to the one I see every day at Canary Wharf – looked very likely to turn into a slippery hazard when it rains.

The thing that really shocked me cycling on the south side of the river is how many cyclists jumped red lights, rode over zebra crossingsactaully dodging the people already walking across it and weeved in and out of buses like they were impervious to accidents. It was really different to the north of the river where that kind of thing happens less and less frequently..

Claire, you’ve got to be kidding right – trying to turn this debate into a North/South issue?

It’s a well known fact that South London cyclists are better behaved, have cooler bikes, are better at doing track stands, and are on the whole more good looking than their North London counterparts. As for East London, don’t even go there (literally).

I’d like to make some positive comments on CS7. I cycle part of the route on my daily commute and have seen it take shape. I’m convinced that the relaid surfaces, junction alterations and clear signage will result in an improved cycling environment that should encourage more cyclists on the road. Of course I would like cycle lanes completey separated from other traffic but in most cases that’s impractical. We should acknowledge the superhighways as a positive step and stop whinging.

About infrastructure in the UK, I walked yesterday between Elephant and Castle and Oval to see the nearly completed cycle superhighway known as CS7. I was deeply depressed/shocked/sadden by the waste of money:
– the “highway” consists of mainly a blue strip located 1.5 m from the kerb, mainly on the bus lane. Which clearly forces cyclists towards the kerb, I usually ride in the middle of the bus lane. (why paint bus lanes anyway, these are already painted red?)
– There are parking and delivery spaces located ON the blue strip (making a very mix of blue, red, yellow, black and white!)
– The complete road surface as been rebuilt along the corridor for the benefit of car users, using the “cycling budget”! – that’s why it’s so expensiove as all the works are located at night
– the only part segregated section of the superhighway (the elephant and Castle bypass) crosseds numerous road. These crossings and for the majority equiped with TOUCAN cossings where cyclist have to activate the crossing with a push button! (Where is the super from the superhighawy)
– actually the blue paint is very thick (some kind of thermoplastic) which is very uncomfortable as it is non continuous. The worse being the approach to ped crossings with zig-zags which slows you down quite a lot!
– I didn’t see a single white line separating cyclists from traffic…

To finsh up I saw a cycle accident with the car not stopping at the scene at the Oval. The girl was very shocked but seemed alright though she was taking by the ambulance. The area around oval was quite a coas as several lanes where closed for the repaving works and no alternative route other than using illegaly the footway where offered to cyclists…

I’ve used some of CS7 and its a mixed bag
It is more visible than most cycle lanes and mainly sticks to roads where you can keep a decent pace going.
Too much of the highway where there is not a bus lane is just the left hand side of the inside line. So cars just drive in it. When there is a bus lane its less of a problem, but they need to widen the bus lane at bus stops or when you are passing a stantionary bus you have to pull out into traffic.

One more positive is that the awful A3/A23 southbound junction has been changed meaning you are slighly less likely to get left hooked if you are try to continue along the A3. Still could be better.
On the segregated lanes question, I think the Baylis Road one is too narrow with the dividers too wide. The number of cyclists who use it is very high and at rush hour I end up staying on the road. It also has two bus stops on it which means its blocked when a bus pulls in. A better one is on Queen Victoria Street in the city.

Looking at the Video and the Images, the new cycle super highways look like a complete waste of time.

I love cycling and all that cycling gives me as an individual, but these new BLUE cycle super highways seem to be exactly the same as the GREEN cycle routes, just a new colour and a little bit wider.

Negatives:
You are still ging to have drivers and pedestrians ‘drifting’ into the lanes as there is no physical barrier.

The blue colour is horrible, might as well have kept them green.
Some one mentioned earlier that this will only go to further enhance the perception that cyclists should have their own separate road, which I agree with to a certain degree.

I do fail to see the point of these. Are they there to encourage new cyclist or are they there to keep the current crop safe. If the answer to any of these is yes, then surely a SEPARATE lane would be better, SEPARATE from the traffic, which is what I thought all those years ago was sold to us….’a lane where cyclists can feel free and enjoy faster commuting times’ I think is what was said.

I really hope I am proved wrong, but to me they are just different coloured GREEN lanes.

I cycled along CS7 last night.
the blue surface is really bothering me.

At about 20-23mph on skinny road-boke tyres I don’t feel safe on the blue paint. the surface seems slippery, and they have done that stupid thing where they put surface/paint AROUND the exisitng road markings (zig-zags, red lines, yellow lines etc).

I avoided the blue surface that covers half the bus lane, and rode in in the other half.

I caught up with another cyclist doing exactly the same thing and at a junction I asked him why he avouded the blue paint? he thought it was slippery and dangerous. He ventured the opinion that in the winter the BUSES might find it slippery.

Andreas – I think perhaps you might have found something for London-cyclist to campaign about.

I was horrified to return to historic Narrow Street after a short holiday to find large bright blue motifs burnt into the road surface overnight. They are repeated at close intervals all the way down the street. They desecrate a beautiful part of London and add to the plethora of official clutter, speed bumps, road markings and other government interference in our lives. Narrow Street already takes too much cycle traffic at peak hours with bikes powering along at over the 20mph limit and often sharing the pavements. The traffic light signals at the eastern end are regularly ignored by cyclists which makes my life as a pedestrian very uncomfortable. The superhighway is an expensive farce and a political gimmick with total insensitivity to the historic environment. Please paint out the blue excresences asap. There is no way I will vote for Boris if he has anything to do with this .. its pure bonkers.

There needs to be a big education campaign for drivers backed up by enforcement and fines (they might even recoup so e of the cash spent on the blue paint). It should be made clear where drivers are allowed to enter or cross the blue CS and where they’re not. CAse in point the north end of CS7 at Southwark Bridge the whole of the near-side lane is CS blue with a broken White line separating it from the rest of the carriageway but it fills up with motor vehicles at the lights.

I’d like Boris/ TfL to write to all the black cabs and private hire taxis (the worst culprits) about the restrictions of entering lanes and advanced stop boxes. TfL already have these drivers’ details as they have issued them licenses.

Finally there should be parking restrictions to keep vehicles out of the lanes during peak couting hours.

The best thing for ALL cyclists is simply having more cyclists on the road. It makes motorists much more aware of cyclists, the so-called ‘Safety in Numbers’ effect. Over the last ten years or so this has been by far the biggest reason for the improvement in cycle safety statistics. It also makes cycling more fun.

Therefore… the number one priority should be to recruit as many NEW cyclists as possible. Viewed in this light, the Superhighways should be seen as positive contribution to increase publicity and get more people on their bikes regularly. If they see a big blue routes taking them straight to work they may be tempted to try it. And by recruiting more and more cyclists, the seasoned cyclists will also benefit, albeit indirectly.

Well, I have just written letters of complaint to various bodies because I cannot believe our roads have been so defaced and apparently with so little benefit. The one that really annoys me is the big blue box in the middle of the road (not near a main junction or anything, just in the middle of poor old Colliers Wood High Street) with a big CS7 painted on it, right NEXT to THREE CS7s painted in the side blue lane, right OPPOSITE a big blue box with a CS7 painted in it on the other side of the road, and right IN FRONT of ANOTHER big blue box in the middle of the road with CS7 painted on it!!!!! Absolutely insane!

I don’t agree that the cycle superhighways are a waste of money although I do agree that they can be a lot better.
Some parts of the route are really very good and make cycling a lot safer. These areas are often where two lanes of traffic (in the same direction) have been reduced to one and a bus lane or wide cycle lane have been placed in the available space created.
It is understandable that in other parts of the route the narrow London streets are difficult to modify. I maintain hope that this superhighways are just phase 1 of the scheme and once complete the cycling budget will remain and can be put into use to improve the problem areas.
I don’t think what has been done dramatically improves cycling in London but it needs to be seen as a step towards a proper solution. I certainly hope so anyway.

Well I tried the CS2 as part of my commute home and found Vans and buses stopped parked and driving on the blue part. I suffered a bit of abuse explaining the blue part politely, so gave up and explained the cycle box instead. The one guy parked in it swore at me and I had enough so I stopped in front of him.

When the light turned green he started hooting but I ignored him so he had to wait for a break in the traffic so he could pull out and pass me. I didn’t enjoy it a great deal, I thought by now it would all be settled and people respecting the cycle part. I must be naive, you mean the Easter bunny isn’t true either?